Registration of Afghan refugees
UNHCR registered more than 6,000 new Afghan refugees in the
last three days after Pakistani authorities opened the border with Afghanistan
and allowed refugees to enter Killi Faizo refugee camp. The government sealed
its border with Afghanistan to check Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters fleeing from
the US bombing to enter the country through the Chaman border. Tor Emaus of
UNHCR said they had been registering 430 families everyday since 16 January.
He said more than 4,000 refugees were still waiting in the no-man’s
land to enter the country for their registration.
He said the Afghan refugees waiting outside the Haji Faizo refugee camp
were facing hardships due to severe cold. Several
children have died due to severe cold and hunger. So far, more than 39,000
Afghan refugees have been moved to three camps in Roghani and Dara after their
registration in the Haji Killi Faizo camp.
No entry for Afghans
Pakistani immigration authorities at Torkham check posts have
refused entry to Afghans even if they had legal papers.
An unnamed Afghan border security forces official said that more than ten
Afghans had been refused entry without any reason.
Local immigration officials said they had been directed not to allow any
person from the other side of the border, except journalists and Afghans
carrying special permission letters of the governor of the Nangarhar province.
Health services for Afghans
NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah said the government
is committed to provide basic health services to Afghan refugees for free
despite its limited resources. The
service would continue for humanitarian reasons. Delegates at the joint meeting
of the International Pediatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrician and
UNICEF lauded this commitment. They said a team of doctors from the US, Turkey,
Thailand and South America would train the Afghan and Pakistani doctors working
with Afghan refugee children in Peshawar.
Police behind human trafficking gangs
Some police officials allegedly protect human trafficking
gangs in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Sources
said the trafficked women and children, who are part of the sex trade or
domestic servitude, are beyond the protection of the law and those who help
victims of trafficking face harassment. Shahnaz
Bokhari of Progressive Women’s Association (PWA) alleged that a certain
Mohammad Asghar has been harassing the family who helped a Bangladeshi woman.
Amna Qadir of Action Aid said the exact number of women and children trafficked
within the country was not known, but that only conceals the existence of the
problem and precludes taking the necessary action against it. .
Sources: “6,000
new Afghan DPs arrive," Dawn, 20 January 2002; “Afghans refused entry," Dawn, 25 January 2002; M.
Arshad Sharif, “Human traffickers enjoy police patronage: NGOs," Dawn, 28
January 2002; APP, “Medicare to Afghan refugees assured," Dawn, 28
January 2002